Drive belts typically couple at least a pair of gears, whether configured without teeth, i.e. as a pulley, or with teeth, i.e., as sprocket. In either situation, it may be important to maintain an appropriate tension in the drive belt, such that the drive belt maintains an appropriate friction force with, or applies an appropriate friction force to, the pulley, and/or avoids skipping teeth on the sprocket. Over time, the drive belt may stretch, thereby altering the amount of tension exerted on/by the belt, and thereby affecting the performance of the belt and gears.
In response, the tension of the belt may be maintained, or even altered as desired, by way of additional gears or other tensioning systems acting directly on the belt. These types of systems may cause additional wear on the belt, however, or require additional space to house the tensioning system. In addition, such systems typically require additional expensive and complex systems. Accordingly, the need remains for a reliable and simple self-tensioning system that is compact and does not expand the footprint of the drive system.